Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Lure

The next morning, right when we were about to leave to meet up with L’Arc, Kizuna showed up with heavy bags under her eyes. I was so annoyed I couldn’t think of anything to say.
The night before, she had gone out to the ocean with the new lure I’d made for her. She must have stayed out really late with it.
“This lure is amazing! I just attached it to my fishing line and threw it in and the fish lined up to bite it! I catch something every time I cast it. I love it! Can we put off this trip until tomorrow?”
Was she insane?
Her pupils were wide and dilated, and she looked like she was about to run off and go fishing again. She looked like something out of a horror movie.
Glass looked like she understood what was going on, so she tried to calm Kizuna down a bit.
“Kizuna, you’re a little worn out, aren’t you? Why don’t we take a little break?”
“I don’t want to! If I take this lure to another place, I can catch even bigger fish! Don’t you want to eat something good? Don’t you? If you do, you better let me go!”
“Kizuna! That’s enough! Enough! Please calm down. You need to rest.”
“But . . .”
 
She was stuck between her duty and her love of fishing and the scales seemed to hang evenly.
I didn’t see what she was so obsessed with. Her eyes were freaking me out. I wished she’d stop looking at me.
“Fine. Alright . But you have to let me go fishing when we get back.”
“Very well,” Glass said, and Kizuna sat down with a humph .
She was already worn out by all the battles and training. Then she went fishing all night on top of that. She must have been exhausted.
How much fun can fishing really be?
“That lure must be cursed.”
“You’re the one that made it.”
“Are you trying to kill our Kizuna ?! ”
“This is my fault now?”
Kizuna was the one that was obsessed with the lure. It wasn’t my fault.
“Hey Alto, are you coming too?”
“Yeah, just to see what sort of materials I can get my hands on. I don’t enjoy fighting very much.”
He was a merchant, after all. He was competitive on a different battlefield. I assumed that he was coming along to see if he could find any interesting drop items.
“I’m coming along for the drops. I’m trying to buy some special powders, the sort that have ability names.”
“What’s that?”
“You know, like strength powder and magic powder.”
 
I’d never heard of anything like that, but the concept was intriguing. I felt the itch to start collecting and categorizing.
“They’re mostly used to make various medicines. Medicines made with those powders fetch a good price because they have fantastic ability-enhancing properties.”
“Hm . . .” I’d run into the concept before in older RPGs.
Heroes like myself didn’t need to depend on such things, because every material we found unlocked more weapons and abilities.
A trickle of water becomes a river—as insignificant as they may seem, adventurers that had reached their level cap would probably chase after materials like that, as they’d be the only way to continue raising their stats.
That explained something that had been bothering me. There were a lot of adventurers in this world that were very powerful, even without holding a legendary or vassal weapon. These powders must have had something to do with it.
“I’d rather use them than sell them.”
“They become less effective the more you use them, so most people sell them once the efficiency starts to drop off.”
I could understand that. That would explain how Trash #2’s friends had been able to break through my shooting star shield barrier. They looked like weak underlings, so I’d been surprised by how powerful they actually were.
Ethnobalt spoke next, directing us toward his ship, “Then shall we get going? Perhaps Kizuna could use our travel time to get some rest.”

I hadn’t realized that we were going to be traveling by his strange ship. I guess it made sense—ease of travel was probably the best part of having the ship vassal weapon. The ship was like a knock-off of my portal skills, and it worked by traveling over these things call “dragon veins,” which were currents of some kind. We’d used it once before, and it had been very fast.

We were moving very fast now, fast enough to ignore them, but I couldn’t help but notice how many monsters there were flying around up in the sky.
I guess flying monsters weren’t particularly rare, but I was surprised to see so many.
“There are quite a lot of them up here today. It’s crowded.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes. I think I’ll take a short detour.”
If we had to be in a mid-air battle aboard the ship, people with ranged attacks would fare better than anyone else.
Too bad our resident monster-hunting hero was busy taking a nap.
“I’m so glad to get away from all that boring diplomacy! Time for some action!” L’Arc shouted. I ignored him. If you ask me, he wasn’t the kind of guy who should be put in a position of authority over anyone.
We were flying through the air on Ethnobalt’s ship to go to an area with strong monsters. Ethnobalt may not be much use in battle, but his vassal weapon sure was convenient.
“Hey Ethnobalt, you’re a monster, aren’t you? What’s your species called?”

Was he a demi-human, like Raphtalia? He was a giant, talking rabbit, after all.

“In L’Arc’s country we are known as library rabbits.”
“There’s only one place they live naturally, and that’s in the labyrinth libraries,” L’Arc explained.
“I wonder if they are like the beast men in the world that I was summoned to.”
If they weren’t so different, then the definitions of human and monster were in need of an update.
“We’ll be passing my hometown shortly. Shall we stop by and have a look?” Ethnobalt said, turning the ship around into a wide detour that brought us up to a large, shrine-like building. A tall rabbit was walking nearby, and Ethnobalt called him over to us.
The rabbit came over and bowed to us before sniffing at the air in silence with its little nose.
“So that’s a library rabbit?”
“But when you’re in rabbit form, you must be twice as tall as this guy.”
Was Ethnobalt some kind of boss version?
“Yes, well. Do your best,” Ethnobalt said to the other rabbit, who just kept sniffing in response. Couldn’t the stupid thing talk?
Filo interjected. “He said, ‘Yes, our great chief.’”
Why did Filo understand him?
If they spoke in monster language, then I guess it was safe to categorize them as monsters? I mean, were they really talking? It just looked like sniffing to me. I guess the rabbit was more intelligent than it appeared.
 
“We are on our way to training grounds. I wish to become strong enough to help protect the world.”
Many more rabbits came hopping over and they started clapping, though their paws didn’t make very much noise.
It was a surreal sight to behold.
“Ethnobalt is the leader of this tribe. His people are fond of him, which is a sign of a good leader,” L’Arc said. He was a king himself. But I’d keep calling him Boy.
Kizuna had managed to surround herself with people in positions of authority.
Had I managed the same thing back in Melromarc? The only friend I had in a position of power was Melty. She was the princess, so if the queen were to die, then she would become monarch of Melromarc, just like L’Arc. Heh—when that happened, I would go on calling her Princess. I could see it now: her face turning bright red with anger. She’d probably stomp her feet and yell at me.
Anyway, ever since I met him, I felt that Ethnobalt had something in common with Fitoria—even if he was much weaker. I decided to act on my hunch and ask him directly.
“How old are you, Ethnobalt?”
“Me? I’m turning fifteen this year.”
Hm . . . that wasn’t what I was I expecting. I didn’t know how old Fitoria was, but she’s been alive since there were other heroes, so probably generations old.
 
So how could Ethnobalt be so young? Wasn’t he supposed to be the monster version of a hero?
“What are library rabbits like? How do they live?”
“Why do you care?”
“It’s not important, but I’m wondering if they’re anything like these filolials back in the world I came from. Filo here is one of them, and . . .” I explained all I knew about the filolials to Glass and L’Arc.
“Ah, do you mean the giant monster that appeared to assist us during the battle with the Spirit Tortoise? That thing was the same type of monster as Filo?”
“Yes. Apparently they gain unique abilities when they’re raised by heroes . That’s why Filo is such a strong fighter, but I don’t know if that’s how things work in this world.”
Ethnobalt pulled out a book and began flipping through it.
“There are tales of a legendary library rabbit . . . yes, here.” He showed us an illustration of a library rabbit wearing robes much like the clothes that Ethnobalt was wearing.
“They say that all library rabbits are descended from this individual, and that this legendary ancestor was killed in an ancient battle.”
So, this legendary rabbit had been killed. It looked very intellectual in the illustration.
“I was named after this legendary library rabbit. But, I am not yet worthy of the name. There is so much I do not know, but I hope to become like him in time.”
 
“Hm . . .”
Kizuna finally woke up.
“Wow! I guess all of worlds have these sorts of things in common.”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far. But Ethnobalt, you say you want to get stronger . . .”
He held a vassal weapon. I wonder if that would prevent me from putting a monster spell on him and putting him under my control. There were ofuda in this world that lent people control over monsters. I think they were called “control ofuda.”
“Kizuna, why don’t you trying raising him with a control ofuda? It might change the way that he levels.”
Ethnobalt frowned, “Then I would have even less to show for myself.”
“Deal with it.”
Filo could grow to be stronger than Fitoria. So, you never know how things will end up.
“It’s long been said that the library rabbits are not suited for battle.”
Was that some kind of racial characteristic? Like a whole race, a whole species, of Rishia clones? How sad would that be?
“If they mature differently, based on whether or not they are under the control of a hero, then they are probably like the filolials back in my world.”
“I suppose we could try it,” Kizuna agreed.
“I . . . I will do what I must!” Ethnobalt replied.
Did he think that was impressive? As far as I could see, you couldn’t afford to slack off if you held a vassal weapon. He had a responsibility to the weapon.
 
“For now, just do all that you can in battle, and don’t push it too far. We’ll take care of the rest.”
“Alright.”
We finished talking and took off again. When we arrived at our destination, we found ourselves surrounded by angry monsters. They bared their fangs and attacked.
“Whoa!” I quickly used Shooting Star Shield to protect us.
“Ha!” Raphtalia drew her sword from the fully charged sheath and flew through the crowd of monsters, faster than the eye could see.
A few monsters fell to the ground defeated, but then even more appeared, drawn by all the sudden commotion.
“Hya!” Glass shouted, slapping open her fan and swiping at an approaching monster.
A bolt of light shot from it and slammed into the charging beast.
“What was . . . ” Glass muttered, looking at me and then at the fan in her hand.
“Was that a skill?”
“Something like that, but I didn’t do anything to make it happen. And it didn’t use any of my energy reserves.”
“I wonder if it’s an effect from the accessory that Naofumi made for your fan?”
“It must be. I’ve never seen an accessory with such a noticeable effect.
 
The craftsmanship must be truly excellent,” Glass said, smiling. It was always exciting to get your hands on a new weapon.
She continued swiping left and right with her fan, sending out shockwaves through the waves of approaching monsters.
“Now it’s my turn to show off!” L’Arc shouted, swinging his scythe. The blade glowed with energy and sliced a nearby monster in two. “Nice! My scythe is even stronger than it was! That accessory you made is really something!”
I didn’t mind all the compliments. I even enjoyed them. But it did feel strange to think about how much I had done for these people, especially considering that we might end up having to fight them at the end of all this.
They had all grown so powerful. I was honestly shocked at how effective my accessories were.
But then, as L’Arc continued to swing his scythe, the accessory began to smoke.
“L’Arc, it looks like it will break if you keep on using it without giving it a rest. Better keep an eye on it.”
“Good idea. It must be the sort of thing that I should save. Only use it when I really need it.”
“I think so. But man, just look at all these monsters.”
Monsters had swarmed at us in endlessly since the moment we entered the labyrinth.
And because Kizuna and I were in the same place, we weren’t getting any experience points out of it. Holders of the vassal weapons were subject to the same issue, so Glass and the others weren’t gaining experience either. Only Rishia, Filo, and Therese were actually leveling in these battles.
 
“It’s quite strange,” Ethnobalt said, covering Rishia and the others from the back line.
“I’ve been here before, and even I think it’s weird!” I shouted.
L’Arc looked at the approaching hordes of monsters with confusion. He didn’t understand what was going on either.
The monsters weren’t so powerful that we couldn’t handle them, but their numbers were unbelievable. We’d eventually get worn down by the sheer number of them , if we didn’t come up with a plan. Otherwise, we’d have to find a way to escape.
“Ha!”
Kizuna switched between fighting with her knife for close battles and her fishing rod for ranged attacks. She had access to other tools besides those two things, so I don’t know why she didn’t use them more.
The lure I’d made for her hung from her weapon, no matter what form it took. I remembered her freaking out about the lure. What had she said? “This lure is amazing! I just attached it to my fishing line and threw it in and the fish lined up to bite it! I catch something every time I cast it. I love it! Can we put off this trip until tomorrow?”
“Kizuna, try removing that lure for a minute!”
“Huh? Okay!” she said, taking the lure off of her weapon. The moment she did, the waves of monsters stopped coming.
“I thought so.”
 
“What does it mean?”
“I think that lure is attracting the monsters.”
I had a skill that did the same thing. It was called Hate Reaction. It looked like Kizuna’s lure did that as long as she had it attached to her weapon.
“Looks like that thing I made had a really negative effect. I’ll get rid of it for you later.”
“No. You. Won’t!” Kizuna barked, clutching the lure like a string of pearls. “Do you have any idea how many fish I can catch with this thing? Who cares if it attracts monsters too?”
“Well, I guess as long as you choose when to use it there’s no problem.”
“Yes there is! Kizuna, give me that lure!” Glass shouted, holding out her hand expectantly.
Kizuna simply shook her head.
I understood why Glass felt the way she did, but she was overreacting a bit. Maybe there was something I didn’t know about.
“Kizuna. Listen to us. Give the accessory to Glass,” L’Arc said calmly. Everyone, including Therese and Ethnobalt, reacted the same way. They must have been aware of a risk that I wasn’t.
“Rafu?”
“What’s all this about?” Raphtalia and Rafu both looked as confused as I was.
I looked around and saw that Filo and Rishia were confused too.
“Kiddo, Kizuna’s a great girl, but she’s got some issues when it comes to fishing. She even tried to fish off of the ghost ship we were on that day,”
 
L’Arc sighed heavily. “Of course we stopped her.”
“You mean she thinks about fishing even in the middle of battle?”
“Absolutely.”
“I do not!” Kizuna shouted.
“Then will you give me that lure?”
“I . . . Um . . .”
“Let her have it. We’ll just keep an eye on her.”
“You can’t. You’ll see. She’ll try fishing for mice the second she gets a break.”
Fishing for mice? Would she really do that? Even if she knew it would attract other monsters? Kizuna had never seemed like a careless person to me.
Ethnobalt nodded, as if he’d suddenly realized something, “That was why there were so many flying monsters today. We almost collided with some in the air.”
I remembered that he had mentioned there were more monsters than usual.
“Good point. Maybe you should hand it over to Glass. When you want to use it, Glass will let you,” I told her.
“But then I might miss my chance to catch the big one! What if Glass isn’t around when I need it ?! ”
“What do I care? Get over it already. I’m sure you can work this out amongst yourselves.”
“Mr. Naofumi, don’t give up so easily. We have to convince her.”
 
“I have a dream! I want to catch a fish bigger than anyone has ever seen!”
“Then go catch a whale!”
I regretted saying that. I didn’t want her leaving a wave battle to go fishing.
“Kiddo, you get her from the right, I’ll take her from the left. Glass and Raphtalia—you two make sure she doesn’t get away.”
“Fine.”
Everyone sprang to it immediately, and soon we had Kizuna surrounded.
“What are you doing? Leave me alone!”
She could resist if she wanted, but we were going to get that lure from her if we had to kill her to do it.
She could play with her lure after we defeated Kyo and went back to our world.
“Noooo! You stole it from me! My favorite accessory!” Kizuna whined. Her childish screams echoed in our ears.
She finally sounded her age.
“Alright then . . .” I turned to survey the area, ignoring Kizuna’s pouting and begging.
The monsters were tough, but nothing that we couldn’t handle.

We’d come out to this place to check the effects of the new accessories. All of them were more impressive than I had expected, and we weren’t having any trouble with the monsters. That wasn’t surprising, considering that most of our party was made up of people with vassal weapons, and the others were holy heroes from an assortment of worlds.

“There are monsters coming. Let’s do this.”
“Yes!”
“Right on! Let’s get some nice materials from them and see what Naofumi can make for us next!”
“Ask L’Arc or Romina to do it!” I snapped at Kizuna.
As for the battle itself, it wasn’t even worth describing. We won easily.
We pressed on, and the monsters we encountered slowly grew stronger.
We hadn’t yet met any that were strong enough to break through my defenses, though we had met a few that could get through the Shooting Star Shield.
Kizuna, L’Arc, and Glass were starting to get tired.
“Let’s take a break,” I said, and everyone agreed.
“It’ll be dark soon. Should we build a fire?”
“We’ll take turns keeping watch.”
“Sounds good, then I’ll . . .” Kizuna started.
“No fishing.”
“I wasn’t going to say that!”
We sat down to rest, taking turns keeping watch.
There would have been a time, long ago, when I’d found the idea of camping romantic. Now, the reality was less so. Someone had to stay awake and keep an eye out, and the whole thing was pretty exhausting. Still, I was used to it by now, and it wasn’t a problem.
 
I had some free time, so I decided to see what I could craft from the materials I had stored in the shield. Kizuna and the others spent their time doing the same thing.
Filo and Rafu snuggled up next to me and went to sleep.
Raphtalia took the time to practice with her sword. She was really invested in that new weapon. And as for Rishia, she hunched over a book and started to study. She was either trying to figure out how to read the writing in this world, or she already could and was just reading the book. Probably the latter. She was pretty amazing when it came to studying—keep it up!
Once I indicated what I wanted the shield to craft, I ended up with nothing to do. I was a little too wound up to sleep. I had time on my hands, so I decided to use it.
“Raph-chan.”
“Rafu?”
Raph-chan had been sleeping nearby, so I picked her up and set her on my knees. I called up the menu for the shikigami power-ups, and started looking through the list of materials I could use to power-up her abilities.
Shikigami didn’t have levels like other people and monsters did. Instead, their stats and abilities could be adjusted directly by using various objects and materials. It was a bit like adjusting the bioplant specifications, and it seemed like there was a lot to learn. It was even possible to adjust the shininess of her fur!
It was deeper than that too. There wasn’t just a single number to play with, but many. The stiffness, softness, fluffiness, sleekness, length, and other things could all be adjusted.
 
So, whenever I found myself with some free time on my hands, I’d take to fiddling with Raph-chan’s power-ups.
At the moment, I had gotten her to the point where she could use illusion magic to back us up in battle. Eventually, I hoped that she’d be able to take over some of Raphtalia’s role as my right hand in battle.
“Rafu!”
I was sitting there patting Raph-chan and mulling over the possibilities when I realized something large was nearby. I turned to see what it was and found Ethnobalt sitting behind me.
He was in his rabbit form, and was just large enough to make a perfect backrest.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just . . . this is the easiest place to relax.”
“Huh?”
“Naofumi, you’re so popular with monsters,” Kizuna smiled.
I had no idea what they were talking about.
“Mr. Naofumi is a very good caregiver. I am where I am today due to his kindness,” Raphtalia said. She probably thought she was saying something nice, but it didn’t make me happy.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were making fun of me.
“Master! Master is mine! Mine!”
“I don’t think so Filo. No one owns me—certainly not you.”
“Rafu?”
 
“Pen!”
“Filo and Chris sure have hit it off. They’re like old friends now,” Kizuna said.
I looked to see what she meant, only to discover myself surrounded by Filo, Raph-chan, Chris, and Ethnobalt.
Glass nodded, “Naofumi may be from another world, but he is the Shield Hero, is he not? Monsters must realize that he is not their enemy, but that he is here to protect them.”
“Yeah, and Naofumi’s side is probably the safest place to be.”
“I guess that could be it. But damn! It’s so hot with these things all around me!” I stood up and moved, carrying Raph-chan with me.
The minute I sat down, Filo, Chris, and Ethnobalt followed me and plopped down around me again. It was a little better than the last arrangement, but not by much. I could hardly understand humans, much less all these monsters. I guess that made sense in a way—they wanted to sleep somewhere they knew they would be protected. It was a natural instinct.
“I don’t have time to play with these things,” I said, flipping Raph-chan onto her back and rubbing her fluffy belly to see how her fur looked.
“That’s probably the least convincing thing you’ve ever said.”
“How so?”
“Rafuuuu . . .”
“Mr. Naofumi, don’t pet Raph-chan too much.”
“How come?”
Whenever I paid a lot of attention to Raph-chan, Raphtalia looked a little irritated.
 
“Well, Raph-chan was made from my hair, and . . . well, I feel a little embarrassed when you pet her like that.”
“Oh come on. You’re just a little kid yourself. I’ll pet Raph-chan if I want to.”
Raphtalia puffed out her cheeks, unimpressed with my answer, and went back to practicing with her sword. She looked like she was swinging it harder than she had been.
“That’s just like you, Naofumi . . .”
“Rafu!” Raph-chan raised her hand and shook her head.
Had I said something wrong?
Raphtalia was like my daughter, and Raph-chan reminded me of her, so of course I cared about Raph-chan too. I don’t understand what’s so weird about that.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh nothing. You should get some rest, don’t you think? L’Arc is already snoring over there.”
She was right. L’Arc was passed out and snoring. It was so loud I was afraid it would attract monsters.
Just when I started to wonder about it, Therese walked over and placed a blanket over him, then cast a spell that silenced his snoring. It didn’t bother me really, but something about it felt wrong.

Glass had been talking just a minute ago, but now she was asleep next to Kizuna.
 
“There’s still plenty of time. Raphtalia and I will keep watch, so why don’t you get some sleep?”
“Alright already.”
Ever since I was betrayed by Bitch , I had trouble getting in a deep sleep. I’d have to take the opportunity to rest while I had it.
I laid down to rest, thinking that the trip had turned into a training camp.
We finished our training around noon of the following day, and returned to the castle.
Filo leveled up a fair amount on our trip, so I should explain what happened there. When we crossed over into this world, Filo turned into a humming fairy, and humming fairies change into different forms as they level.
Perhaps because she was originally a filolial, Filo was able to change into any of her humming fairy forms at will.
“Master! Do you think I look more like how I used to look now?”
“Yeah, much closer.”
We were back in the castle courtyard, and Filo was changing into different forms to show off.
I was starting to hope that Raph-chan would be able to change forms, just like Filo could. If she was just a little bigger, she would be perfect for cuddling with when I sleep. Or if she got even bigger, I could lay down on her belly to sleep. I’d seen something like that in an anime once.

Sure, I could do that with Ethnobalt or Filo, but I’d rather snuggle with Raph-chan.
 
Ok, that was a bit of a digression.
Filo had currently taken the form of something Kizuna called a humming big owl, which looked exactly like you would expect from the name. She was the same size as she used to be when in her filolial queen form. She looked pretty similar, except for the area around her waist.
She could also turn into a humming emperor penguin, complete with a crest of feathers on her head. Kizuna’s shikigami, Chris, was also a penguin, and he looked over at Filo with jealousy.
“And you know what? I can sing really good now!” Filo yelled. Then she puffed up her throat and started to sing.
It almost sounded like there was back-up music. It made for an energized performance.
I couldn’t figure out how she was making so many different sounds at once, but it sounded like someone was playing a koto along with her song.
This world’s traditional music sounded pretty Japanese to me.
The country that Kizuna had established herself in was mostly Western-styled, but the clothing people wore looked like a fusion between Japanese and western elements.
We were in a bar once and I saw a musician playing a shamisen—it looked strange, to say the least. It wasn’t all bad though—I was certainly pleased with Raphtalia’s new miko outfit.

“Rafu!” Raph-chan jumped up and started dancing along with Filo’s song.
 
“Oh wow. Nice!” I shouted, disinterested, and went back to the magic practice I’d been doing. Filo had said it was a fun song that gave you energy. And I did sort of feel like my magic power replenished faster than usual. Raphtalia’s training went really well too.
Was it an effect of Filo’s song?
“I’m about ready to head home for the day.”
“Okay!”
So we spent our days preparing for the coming battle. But then, that night, when we were all asleep, something happened. Thinking back on it now, I’m surprised that we hadn’t been more on guard, especially considering how long it had been since Kyo had tried anything.
We paid for our lack of caution.